Having a website and pages on social media is almost essential for most companies, which find in these platforms a way to reach more easily to potential customers and differentiate themselves from the competition.

On the other hand, for those looking for a product or service, search engines have become important allies to gather information and make decisions. Thus, a well-structured, responsive website with useful information can be a useful tool to attract potential customers. On the other hand, there are other features that can give your site a competitive advantage over your competitors, namely the fact that it can be consulted in several languages.

Most companies provide a version of their website in the language of the country where they are based and an English version. The English language is considered by many to be the lingua franca and the language of business, much because it is the most spoken language on the Internet, with about 873 million English-speaking users (data from the Portuguese Language Observatory for March 2016).

However, English is not the most widely spoken language in the world, lagging behind Mandarin and Spanish. In this sense, it is important to re-evaluate the need to have websites only available in English versions, ignoring the growing use of other languages. Having a multilingual website can be a great way to increase the base of potential customers, and a process that may prove to be crucial in the future, given that we are increasingly living in the so-called "global village".

The great advantages of having a multi-language website are:

Ability to reach a wider audience

Having the ability to communicate with a new international audience in your own language has the potential to bring positive results to your company. Clients typically feel safer when communicating in a language they dominate, meaning that your company website may appear in search results of people using other languages, increasing the number of individuals who access the page.

On the other hand, your company may choose to bet on the languages ​​that most closely match the company's strategy. For example, if you have clients in the Italian market, you can make a version of the site available in Italian, even if that language is not among the most widely spoken in the world today.

Low investment

As we have already mentioned, each language added to your site increases the chances of reaching new customers. Thus, having a greater business potential and opportunities to create relationships with new clients, the investment made in the translation of the website is very low when compared to the gains that can be derived from this action.

Customer orientation

A multilanguage website demonstrates that your business is focused and concerned with customer’s experience. This little extra effort shows that your brand is concerned about making information about your products or services available in the language of the site’s visitor. Many users are still suspicious about online purchases and information on websites whose languages ​​they do not master, so offering them a reliable alternative in their own language can be the determining factor in getting them to decide to do business with your company.

Advantage over competition

Look at your direct competitors: Do they have multilingual websites? If the answer is “yes” then you should definitely have a website available in several languages ​​in order to be side to side with the competition. If the answer is “no”, this can be a way to differentiate yourself from the companies that offer the same services as yours and get some advantage.

Lastly, having a multilingual website gives your company an international image and, as we know, public perception weighs heavily on the choice of the company you are closing with.